Take Me Baby, Or Leave Me
by WakeUpAGeneration
Summary: [PostRENT] Maureen shows up with some shocking news for Mark that will change both of their lives forever. Part 4 now up. Reference to MarkMaureen. Rating may go up for future installments. PLEASE REVIEW!
1. Discoveries

Her pace quickened, her heart leaping, as she hustled through the frigid streets of the East Village towards her ex-boyfriend's building, cursing under her breath as her fingers clutched the tube in her pocket. It was cold, almost deathly so, but Maureen couldn't feel a thing as her eyes darted over the street, her legs automatically taking her along the route to the building of industrial lofts. How was she going to explain this?

She knocked insistently on the door several times before she heard a rustling and a quick click of several locks being opened, and Mark's blond head thrust out of the door, squinting at her in surprise. He was pale and a little wrinkled-looking, as if someone had balled him up and thrown him into a washing machine. When he saw who she was, however, his face brightened considerably and he motioned for her to come inside.

Maureen didn't allow herself to apologize for showing up at seven in the morning on Mark's one day off from work, what she had to say was far too important for her to wait until later. Mark was hovering over the coffeepot, finally pouring himself a cup of sickly-looking brown liquid. "Coffee?" he asked her scratchily. She shook her head quickly and he raised his eyebrows at her, taking a seat on the couch. She didn't sit.

"What are you doing here so early, Maureen?" he asked feebly, taking a long gulp of coffee. It was clear that he had been up late the previous night, though the reasons were not nearly as obvious.

Maureen took a deep breath, her heart pounding in her chest. The situation she was in was one that she had hoped never to be in, she hated even the thought of how her life had changed within only thirty seconds earlier that morning and even if she wasn't in love with him, she hated the thought that she was about to cause Mark the same pain.

"Look, what I'm about to say isn't going to be easy for you to hear, and you're probably not going to be happy," she said quickly, her eyes darting over Mark's now-shadowed features. He looked concerned and she could understand that. "Now don't be angry," she said, putting her hands out as if to block herself from him. "but…do you remember that…one night we had last month when Joanne and I were broken up?"

Mark nodded. Though it was a lie and they had both known it. There had been no break-up, Maureen had simply made it up because Joanne had been working late and ignoring her and she wanted revenge. But Mark, still so lovesick even after over a year of them being apart, had accepted her story just for the reward. She and Joanne had miraculously reconciled two days later. Joanne, of course, was one of the biggest problems with her predicament.

She pulled the tube from the inside of her pocket, allowing Mark to peer at it, his eyes widening.. "Well…I think…well, actually, I know…that I'm pregnant."


	2. Decisions

There was the sound of a ceramic mug falling and shattering on the floor and Mark collapsed. Maureen's heart pounded. "Ohmygod!" she cried as Mark fell onto the floor, unconscious from shock. She knelt next to him, her breathing quick and shallow, trying to revive him as she heard a door slam behind her and rapid footsteps coming nearer.

A second later, Roger and Mimi were standing over her, looking down at her with wide eyes. "What the fuck?" Roger exclaimed sleepily, his face quickly growing more alert and less sleepy. It was obvious that he and Mimi had both been asleep, their hair was both tousled and their faces still slightly flushed from sleep. When Roger finally registered what had happened he cried "Jesus!" and squatted down beside Mark, smacking his face lightly to try and wake him.

Mimi looked down at Maureen with her mouth hanging open. "What the hell happened?" she gasped out, staring at Maureen. "Did you hit him or something?"

"No!" Maureen cried, standing up with a huff. "I came here to tell him something…important…and it surprised him so much that he fainted."

Roger stopped yelling at Mark to wake up and stared up at her with eyebrows raised. Mimi looked at Maureen, too, There was silence for a moment, until Maureen looked down at Mark, still unconscious, and said, quite angrily, "Oh for Christ's sake!" as she squatted down next to Mark again, leaning in close to his face and saying, firmly, "Mark. Mark, WAKE UP."

The filmmaker blinked a little, his face still cold and pale, and looked up at her. "Maureen?" he asked foggily. "What…?"

Roger and Mimi looked at each other and Maureen trained her eyes on Mark, not letting their gazes pierce her. Mark sat up slowly and looked at her. After a moment, the memory of why he had collapsed seemed to return to him and his eyes widened again. "oh…god," he whispered. His hand flew to his forehead. "Oh…mygod."

"What happened?" Roger asked him calmly, looking at Mark intently. Mark's mouth opened and Maureen gave him a pleading, melodramatic pout and he closed it again.

Roger was staring at him expectantly and Mimi's brown eyes were boring into his as he looked around at them, finally sighing and murmuring, "Maureen and I need some time alone to talk, okay?"

Roger and Mimi exchanged another annoyed, skeptical glance but Roger replied, "All right, we'll be in our room." He stood, putting an arm around Mimi's shoulders to guide her back to their room.

Mark stood, slowly, holding himself up by the arm of the chair he'd been sitting in ad looking at Maureen, his face still white with fright and shock. "How did this happen?" he whispered, his face screwed up in amazement.

Maureen sat down, her face in her hands, and looked back up at him. "Well, we really should have been more careful," she said "I mean, we should have used protection."

Mark stared at her. "Protection! I thought you were on birth control!"

Maureen tried not to laugh as she looked him in the face. "Mark, are you freaking serious? I'm a LESBIAN. I'm dating a WOMAN. Why would I bother with birth control when the chances of getting pregnant are absolutely zero?"

Mark smacked himself so hard in the forehead that he almost fell over again. "God, how could I have been so stupid? I should have known…"

Maureen stood and began to pace. "It's all right, Mark, I'll just get an abortion and then we can forget—"

"No!" Mark cried, standing and seizing Maureen's shoulders. "No, you can't get an abortion!"

"Why not?" Maureen replied defiantly. "It's my body, it's my decision. If I want an abortion I'll get one. And there's nothing you can do to stop me!"

Mark sighed. "Please, Maureen. Don't get an abortion. Look…" He sat her down. "I know this has come as a surprise to both of us and I know that I might have reacted badly, but please don't get an abortion."

"I can't have a baby, Mark," she said firmly.

"But…but why not? I'm responsible. I'll raise a child well. Even if you don't want it, I'll take it. At least…" he looked almost tearful suddenly, choked up slightly as he looked into her face. "At least…if you have a baby…I'll have a little piece of you."

Maureen couldn't help but be moved and flattered by his commitment to the idea of having a baby. Sure, she had been thinking for a year or so now about having a baby or adopting, so that she and Joanne could raise it together. Admittedly, her biological clock was ticking and she really wanted to be a mother no matter how much she wanted to hide it and keep being a crazy, free-spirited artist. But Joanne would leave her in a second, she would never hear the end of it from the rest of her friends, her parents would have heart attacks…and she would have to raise a child with Mark. Not that Mark was so bad. Mark would make a great father. Mark would teach a child anything…everything…that it needed to know, he would care and teach and discipline all at the same time…and if she was going to choose a man to have a child with it would have been Mark anyway. Maybe this was the best thing for them.

Mark was giving her that puppy-dog look that he had perfected during their relationship, the one that counter-balanced perfectly with her crazy guilt-tripping. She took in a deep breath, her stomach turning. "All right, I'll have the baby. As long as you promise you'll be here for me for the next nineteen year, that you will commit to this baby and that you will not leave me."

Mark stared her straight in the face. "Maureen, you left me. And I didn't want you to, you know that. If I had that little part of you, that child that was still something that you and I made together, I would hold onto it forever. I could love this baby more than anything, because that's how much loved you."

He started crying, tears of joy trickling down his cheeks and Maureen felt her own throat rising with emotion. A moment later, they were hugging, both crying. They stood together and Mark looked Maureen in the face again. "Maureen, we're going to have a baby!" he cried, pulling her tight against him.

But that sweet moment only lasted for a minute, and then Maureen was plunged back into turmoil as they sat back down. "But what am I going to tell Joanne? How are we going to afford a baby? What are we going to do about Mimi and Roger and Collins? And our parents? We can't get married, Mark."

She watched Mark's face fall just a little bit in amazement. "Mark, did you really think that we were going to get married?'

He hadn't, of course. It had been enough time for him to know that even a baby couldn't force Maureen to commit that much. Just look at the engagement (the rather unsuccessful one) between Maureen and Joanne a year ago. It had caused one of their many breakups to occur. So why would he even expect Maureen to think about engagement? Even if he got down on one knee right now he wouldn't be able to get her to accept a proposal. So he just shrugged. "I guess not, Maureen. But I don't know what we're going to do about the rest of them, honestly."

Maureen rested her elbow on her knee and her chin in one hand. "Well, I guess we should at least tell the others first."

Mark nodded, getting almost dizzily to his feet and sauntered over to Roger's bedroom door knocking lightly several times. The door opened and Roger stared out at him, eyebrows knitted together in confusion. "Yeah?"

"Can you and Mimi come out a second? We want to talk to you." Roger nodded, and Mark turned from the door, feeling almost zombie-like as he returned to his seat in the armchair. Mimi and Roger appeared in the living room a moment later, looking very anxious.

Maureen stood up, looking at them with an expression of fright and concern on her face. "So…we wanted to tell you guys, because this is really important to everyone…well, Mark and I had a bit of a one-night thing about a month ago…and…" She removed the pregnancy test once again from her coat pocket and showed it to them. Roger almost laughed, and Mimi's eyes got so wide that you could see the whites all the way around.

"No way, " Roger said, still chuckling from shock. "No fucking way." Mimi looked to be speechless, her eyes still wide and her mouth hanging open again. "So, are you getting an abortion, Maureen?"

"No," Mark responded, standing himself. "We're keeping it, and we're going to raise it."

Mimi looked even more shellshocked, if that was possible, and finally she seemed to find her voice again. "Congratulations!" she said weakly, and gave Maureen a hug. For the first time, Maureen managed an anemic sort of smile. "You better name it after me if it's a girl, Chica!"

Mark smiled and Roger just stared at him and shook his head, a grin on his face. "Our little Marky's gonna be a daddy!" Roger said, reaching out and giving Mark a tight hug. "Congrats, man."

Mark had to admit he was a little stunned by his friends' reactions himself. He had expected this to be more…awkward, maybe? But none of them seemed upset by the news, they all seemed happy, really. _Well, I guess if they're your friends they'll stick with you no matter what, _he thought. _Good or bad, and try to make the best out of it. _

_That's more than can be said for how Joanne's going to react, though, _he thought with a deep sigh as Roger gave Maureen a congratulatory hug and Mimi and Maureen jumped up and down excitedly together.


	3. Celebration?

As soon as the excitement died down around the loft, Mark decided it would be best to call Collins. He almost dreaded doing this, fearing that exactly what ended up happening would happen.

"YOU…got MAUREEN pregnant?" Collins choked out through roars of laughter on the other end of the tinny phone connection. It was almost like listening to a dog bark. "That's the best thing I've heard yet this year!"

Mark sighed, rolling his eyes. "We're really happy about this, thanks for your support."

Collins continued to laugh. "Oh, come on man, you know I'm happy for you! Hey, I'll head over right now and bring y'all some food, okay? We can celebrate!"

Mark smiled. That was more like the Collins he knew. "That would be great," he replied, this time much more cheerfully. "We'll see you soon, okay?" And he hung up, still chuckling to himself as he flopped back onto the couch. "He's on his way."

"Is he bringing food?" Roger asked.

"Yeah, he is," Mark said. It was funny how Collins had basically become the source of food for the group, even though way back when he had been the poorest out of them all.

"So what are you going to name it if it's a boy?" Mimi asked Maureen excitedly, leaning forward and touching Maureen's stomach.

Maureen shrank away from her. "I'm only a month pregnant! You won't be able to feel anything in there!" There was obvious fright in her voice. This was a lot harder for Maureen than Mark had ever thought it would be. He thought that the attention would have suited Maureen well, that she would bask in the glow of being the "new mother". But it seemed that she wasn't quite as overjoyed about this as he had hoped.

Mark smiled, putting his arm firmly around Maureen's shoulders. "We haven't even had the time to discuss what we're going to tell Joanne, let alone potential names."

The room went quiet as everyone considered what Joanne would say. They all knew that Joanne was already jealous of Mark and when she found out that Maureen was pregnant with HIS baby…the chances that she was going to lose it were staggering. Roger finally piped up. "When did Collins say he was going to get here?"

"He said he was heading right over, but he had to stop and get supplies first."

"He better be bringing alcohol," Maureen muttered. Mark stared at her vaguely. She had a long way to go between her current lifestyle and the one that she was going to need to lead for the next nine months.

"no alcohol for you, you're pregnant," Mark said. Maureen scowled at him and Roger rolled his eyes at her.

"I don''t think I can do this for nine months," she muttered,


	4. Confessions Of A Space Age Drama Queen

Mark sat, twiddling his thumbs and thinking about what he was going to say to Maureen until she finally emerged from his room around noon. Maureen tossed frizzy brown hair over her shoulder and collapsed onto the couch across from Mark. Mark stared at her, studying her state of consciousness, and she stared back at him.

"What?" she muttered, her voice cracking a little.

"Nothing, I just…I think we should talk."

Maureen rolled her eyes. "What now? Haven't we done enough talking for one day?"

Mark shook his head. "We're all concerned about you, Maureen. You seem really unhappy. I mean, deep down I know you want this baby, but I don't want to pressure you. I realize that this is going to be a really hard adjustment, but I want to make sure that this is really what you want before we go through with telling Joanne."

Maureen leaned forward, smiling warily and taking his hand in hers. "Mark, I'm a huge drama queen, okay? I'm happy. I'm really happy that we're going to have a baby together. Maybe a little scared and nervous, but…who wouldn't be? Look, you and I can do this. And I'm going to complain a lot but you can't take that too seriously. So don't worry about it. Just know that I'm sure. Just because I'm whining doesn't mean I don't want this to happen."

Mark had known that, and even if his friends hadn't been sure that Maureen wanted this he had really known all along. It was good to have reassurance though. "I'm glad to hear that. So, are we ready to go talk to Joanne?"

A look of pure terror struck Maureen's face but was replaced almost instantly by a determined expression. "Not really, but yes. We have to, I guess." She stood up and went over to the coat rack next to the door that Mimi had brought home one night ("I'm sick of your coats always lying on the furniture!" she had said defiantly before plopping the rack right next to the loft door.) Mark stood as well and shook slightly as he reached for his own coat. The filmmaker was typically a nervous person, but this took the cake. His stomach felt like a nuclear bomb had gone off in there.

As they walked out of the building they discussed what they would tell Joanne. "We just have to explain it to her. She'll understand," Maureen said optimistically as she ran her fingers through her hair.

"Oh yeah, I expect she will," Mark said uneasily. "She put up with all of your shit in the past, so why should now be any different?"

Maureen hit him playfully as they huddled into themselves, hustling down the busy chilly February-worn streets. They were both shaking, from both nerves and the cold. "We'll just tell her that we had a one-night thing about a month ago and we didn't mean it to happen, but it did. And we want her support. And her help," Maureen said. "She'll love that."

Mark nodded. He figured that he was probably going to remain silent for the most part of the confrontation. Just as long as he was there for support Maureen would probably be able to take care of pretty much everything by herself.

Finally, they arrived at the apartment that Maureen and Joanne shared. Mark's stomach was doing gymnastics good enough for an Olympic gold medal as Maureen reached for the doorknob, giving him a weak, unconvincing smile as she pushed the door open.

Joanne was sitting at her desk going over several huge files, a half-full cup of coffee at her elbow. The apartment was silent and she looked up when she heard the door shut, glaring up at Maureen.

"Where have you been?" the lawyer demanded. She got to her feet and went over to give her girlfriend a quick peck on the lips. "Honeybear, I was worried sick about you. You left so early! Why did you run off?"

Then Mark stepped into the apartment tentatively and Joanne looked at him with a look of confusion. "Mark? Were you with Mark?" she asked Maureen. Maureen nodded a little.

Joanne looked as if she was totally unsure of what to make of what was happening. She looked from Maureen to Mark and then glared at Maureen. "Maureen? What's going on?"

Maureen flopped down into Joanne's desk chair, giving Joanne and pleading look. "We need to talk to you, Pookie," she said in her typical drama-queen voice. "It's important."

Mark let himself fall back into the scenery as Maureen began to talk. "Look…don't be mad, but Mark and I had a little…one-night thing about a month ago."

Joanne's eyebrows were raised, her face twisted in fury. But Maureen stood up and held out her hands in a "stop" gesture. "And…And…it was stupid, it was a one-night thing and we should have used protection, but…"

"YOU'RE PREGNANT?" Joanne bellowed, her eyes fiery as she turned to Mark, who shrank away from her. "You got Maureen PREGNANT?"

Mark allowed a shaky "Yes" to escape his lips, and Joanne turned her eyes back to Maureen. "I can't believe this! You got PREGNANT by MARK? While you were dating ME?"

Maureen nodded, giving her Pookie-please-don't-be-mad look. Mark almost chuckled at how masterful Maureen was when it came to controlling her partners. Joanne wasn't going to fall for it this time. "I can't believe this! You're pregnant? And you cheated on me. This is the last straw!" Joanne said, stepping away from Maureen. "I've let you flirt and cheat and control me for way too long! And now you go out and get PREGNANT by MARK! We're done!"

Joanne went over the closet, throwing it open and beginning to throw Maureen's clothes out of it and onto the bed. Maureen yelped a little and jumped over to Joanne. "I thought you'd understand, Joanne! I thought you would want to support me and help with this baby! I thought you'd want to help raise it!"

Joanne stopped what she was doing and turned to Maureen in disbelief. "You thought that after you cheated on me with your ex-boyfriend and got yourself pregnant that I'd actually stay with you? You're insane, Maureen. INSANE. I want you out of this apartment in fifteen minutes. You can stay with Mark, for all I fucking care."

Mark was surprised, and he found himself in a position where he needed to help Maureen. So he shakily walked over and began collecting Maureen's clothes on his arm, speaking to Joanne. "Look, Joanne…we didn't mean this to happen and please, don't blame me, I thought you two were broken up…and I want you to be there. I want to be there too but want you to be there for this baby because you're important to Maureen…"

Joanne turned to him, looked him in the eye, and smacked him across the face. Mark recoiled in surprise, almost losing his balance but managing to stumble back into his feet. Maureen screeched and looked ready to lunge at Joanne but Mark jumped in between her and Joanne, turning his face to Maureen. "Get your shit, Maureen. Let's go."

Twenty minutes later, Mark and Maureen trudged from the apartment with several heavy bags and boxes, looking at each other in despair as they walked back towards the loft. "I thought that she would react much better to that," Maureen said, almost indifferently. She looked almost cheerful at the way that things had turned out.

"Why are you so happy?" Mark demanded with annoyance. "You're homeless and pregnant and poor! That's NOT something to be happy about!"

"Homeless?" Maureen responded. "What? Why can't I stay with you, Marky?"

Mark sighed. He didn't see any other option, really. But there wasn't enough room for her…unless she stayed in his room, which she could…since they were pretty much back together again…he smiled a little. "Well, I guess you'll have to. I don't want the mother of my child out on the street and I need to make sure you're taking care of yourself, so I guess we don't have any other option."

Maureen dropped the several heavy bags she was carrying and gave him a big hug. "Aww, thank you Marky!"

Mark sighed a little. He could tell this was going to be the beginning of an…interesting relationship.


End file.
